Challenging their status as respected visionaries, The Coen Brothers (who are admittedly far, far smarter than yours truly), have determined that Justin Timberlake isn’t the colossal failure as an actor that the vast majority of his IMDB page would suggest. The legendary auteurs are pursuing the sexy-backer for a major role in Inside Llewellyn Davis, which is thankfully about folk rock in the 1960s and not the colonoscopy of a man named Llewellyn Davis. The good news is he can draw on the musical talents he’s decided to shun. The bad news is, you know, the whole acting thing.

I suppose if you’re going to make a biopic of Steve Jobs’ life, a wholly unneeded endeavor given the bubbling fountain of cyber-ink that has been spilled documenting his every breath, you could do worse than having Aaron Sorkin write it. After all, he’s already proved more than capable of bearing the dual albatrosses of a computer-centric storyline that’s based on real events with The Social Network. Although the studio (ironically, Sony) is pursuing the master of walky-talky dialogue, it’s unclear whether he’s ready to once more plunge into the often ill-fated technology-laden drama breech.

How much do you love Batman? Like, lots and lots? Say, enough to endure a gigantic version of Tom Cruise? Word has come from the studio that The Dark Knight Riseswill have a six-minute prologue/preview in front of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. But only in front of the IMAX version and, even then, only on full 70mm IMAX screens (not the smaller, digital-projection screens). A full list of participating theaters will be announced shortly, presumably via the bat signal.

Cutting Room provides breaking local and national movie news … complete with added sarcasm. Send any relevant information to film@thereader.com. Check out Ryan on Movieha!, a weekly half-hour movie podcast (movieha.libsyn.com/rss), catch him on the radio on CD 105.9 (cd1059.com) on Fridays at around 7:30 a.m. and on KVNO 90.7 (KVNO.org) at 8:30 a.m. on Fridays and follow him on Twitter (twitter.com/thereaderfilm).

posted at 02:48 pm on Wednesday, November 02nd, 2011

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